STRAUS Jan - "Now the cover!". Vol. 1-2. Warsaw 2021. oficyna Kolekcjoner - Dariusz Pawłowski. Format: 22.5x27.5 cm, pp. 368; 608. original cardboard cover, cover composition designed by Wilhelm Sasnal.
Very good condition. Pioneering study devoted to the history of Polish book covers from the late 18th century to the outbreak of World War II. The text is illustrated with more than 2,000 color illustrations giving a complete overview of styles, currents and directions in the development of domestic book art design. The illustrative material presented in the book comes mostly from the author's extensive library, abounding in rare and often unique works. The material collected in the two-volume, comprehensive work is divided into three main sections: the 19th century, Young Poland, and the interwar period. Each presents projects characteristic of the period. As the publisher writes: "their authors were some of our greatest artists, painters but also writers: Norwid, Kraszewski, Gerson, Juliusz Kossak, Wyspianski, Mehoffer, Witkacy, Makowski, Skoczylas, Stryjeńska, Gronowski, Strzeminski, Stażewski, Schulz, Tomaszewski [...]. Jan Straus' monograph makes a successful attempt to summarize their achievements in this field. However, the history of Polish cover art is not only art and literature, it is also a visual documentation of the changes, especially moral changes, taking place over the last two centuries in our society. Because the cover accompanies these transformations, indeed, often stimulates them."
The cover for the work presented here was designed by Wilhelm Sasnal, one of the most important artists of the younger generation.
The book was published thanks to a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the "Literature 2021" project. Financial support for this ambitious undertaking was also provided by, among others, the "Rara Avis" antiquarian bookshop, and reproductions of covers from its own archive were also made available.
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